Among the very happy electoral events of 2018 is this: some of the worst Republican governors in our lifetime have left office, or will be leaving as of the new year. Christie, LePage, Walker, Scott (yeah now a US Senator but less of a menace to FL) … so many I can’t name them all so please chime in with your “favorite.”
In New Mexico we had one of our own for eight years and, oh me oh my, was she bad news. To help give her the farewell she deserves, the local pizza industry is cranking the excitement over her departure up to brick oven temps by creating a promotion based on her most infamous moment while in office.
Three years after a loud holiday party in the governor’s room at a downtown Santa Fe hotel received widespread attention — and helped end any talk about Martinez being considered for national office — a local food delivery service is featuring her likeness on a coupon offering $10 off on deliveries of pizza and Coca-Cola.
“Celebrate our governor’s last few days,” says a post on Dashing Delivery’s Facebook page. “Say arrivederci with a pizza party. Order pizza and coke from a participating restaurant and get $10 off your order” ...
The Martinez/pizza connection comes from a taped conversation, released to news organizations, of Martinez speaking to a Santa Fe police dispatcher in December 2015 about complaints about the party in her room and people throwing bottles from a balcony of the Eldorado Hotel & Spa.
“Loud noise? We’re in a room eating pizza. … we are eating pizza and drinking Cokes, and whoever was throwing bottles is not there — hasn’t been there for like six hours,” the governor said, right before telling the dispatcher to “call off” officers who were going to her room.
I diaried here about this sorry incident in detail right after it happened. The PEETZA reference comes from her repeatedly telling the 911 dispatcher and cops on the scene “we’re just having PEETZA” with a strange, drunken inflection on the word. She denied being drunk at the time, but given her aggressive abuse-of-power demeanor, nobody believed that.
As for her governing legacy? Where do I begin. Her 2010 campaign used an “all crime all the time” approach and revived the kind of racist Willie Horton advertising that has caught fire again in the latest couple of years. Once elected she embarked on a single handed, years-long obsession with stripping the drivers licenses of undocumented persons against all policy advice otherwise. There was her admin's destruction of contracted behavioral health services for unknown reasons. Perhaps the final straw was a string of ridiculous vetoes she made, including the total defunding of the state’s higher education system, for no other reason than she could. Thankfully the state supreme court invalidated all of that sad exercise.
Another less-reported fast-food incident involved Gov. Martinez personally ordering lunch at one the counter of a higher-end burger joint and not paying. “Both the manager and a server at Five Star Burgers at the DeVargas Center mall told The New Mexican that Martinez threw the bill in a trash can, took her to-go order and walked out without paying.” My theory: because she ordered the burger herself, she was annoyed that the staff actually asked her name for the order. Another one of those nasty, don’t you know who I am moments?
I can assure you, residents of the Land of Enchantment will be very happy when Michelle Lujan Grisham is inaugurated as our new governor next month.
There is one way Martinez can exit graciously in her last week of office. Take Dine and Dash (excuse me, Dashing Delivery) up on this offer and prepare a video crew for the delivery. When they show up, give a speech along the lines of …. “Yes I was awful. Under my watch our state tanked down to 50th in most economic, education and child welfare measures. But look what I did for the PEETZA industry!”
May all of you send your horrible governors into the sunset with such style !